To begin with the grower, we find here that in many instances the large raisers of sheep have built up their own banks. In Texas, for instance, there are a considerable number of banks whose chief business consists in financing the wool clips of their sections. On the other extreme we have the small grower of the East, who is frequently at the mercy of the local store-keeper. Where wool growing is practised on a large scale in this country the tendency is more and more to reduce the business to a scientifically standardized scale, in such a manner as is prevalent in Australia. The more this is done the more independent the grower becomes, and the easier it is for a bank to determine the strength of the individual risk. The sheep raiser has of course one primary asset, his flocks; and if he is compelled to borrow, the security behind his note rests upon his sheep. In making a loan to a sheep man a bank has to consider not only the market value of the animals, but the conditions under which they are being raised. Sheep are affected by droughts, for instance, and many flocks have been ravaged by predatory animals, or decimated by disease. Any one of these contingencies may at any moment destroy or depreciate the bank’s collateral, and for this reason borrowing of this sort is confined very largely to banks situated in sheep-growing sections which specialize in this form of loan. [Sidenote: _Grower’s Cost_] It would be of great interest to figure the average cost of production per pound of wool to the grower, but, with the varying conditions encountered in different parts of the country and with sundry breeds, an accurate estimate can hardly be arrived at. Even the cost of shearing is variously figured from ten to nearly thirty cents. Generally speaking, however, the grower needs very little financial assistance, because he is able to sell his entire clip for cash. The buyers representing merchants—or in a few cases, mills—are prepared to pay cash for their wool, and in some cases where they feel sure of a rising market, often go so far as to buy the wool on the sheep’s back before it is shorn. Provided the grower knows something about wool, and the existing demand, there is no reason why, from the proceeds of one clip, he should not be able to meet his costs up to the time of the next shearing. [Sidenote: _The Merchant_]